Mears Slams Kanaan and Wheldon

The teammates drove side-by-side during the closing laps of the event after a pre-race agreement, meaning that the following Vitor Meira had effectively no opportunity to challenge for the lead without passing underneath the out-of-bounds white line.

Kanaan edged Wheldon at the line by 12 thousandths of a second.

"As far as I'm concerned, that's blocking," Mears told the Indianapolis Star. The last corner of the race should be fair game. Anywhere from pit road to the grandstand should be inbounds."

IRL president Brian Barnhart confirmed that blocking occurs only when a driver changes lanes to protect his position.

Barnhart said: "The biggest difference is in the fact that blocking constitutes a safety hazard. Two-wide in front of the pack that limits options for cars behind is more of a sporting code issue."

Kanaan caused outcry after the event after admitting the tactic was pre-agreed. Kanaan said: "It wasn't like we just came up with that. It was planned, if that would happen, what we were going to do.”